Major Telecom Companies to Draw Adverts from Video Giant

AT&T® and Hasbro are the most recent firms to come up with the decision to pull adverts from the global video broadcasting platform YouTube. This came as an aftermath of the issue of pedophiles leaving offensive remarks beside videos of children on the platform.

Being one of the fastest internet provider, AT&T® followed the food giant Nestle® in bringing a pause to the ads. YouTube commented on the issue that it had disabled the option of comments on millions of videos quoting that they “could be subject to predatory comments”. This is not the first occasion when comments on its site left it in deep trouble.

The most recent controversy was triggered when a YouTube vlogger, Matt Watson, said that pedophiles were attacking several harmless videos and leaving offensive remarks on them. Watson claimed that time stamps were also dropped marking the videos with child nudity.

According to the vlogger, several companies like Nestle® and Disney played their advertisements before the videos and that this allowed YouTube to gain more money from it.

According to the spokesman for AT&T®, “Until Google [which owns YouTube] can protect our brand from offensive content of any kind, we are removing all advertising from YouTube”. He added that it was “pausing all advertising on YouTube, and has reached out to Google/YouTube to understand what actions they are taking to address this issue and prevent such content from appearing on their platform in the future”.

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Furthermore, it is also reported that McDonald’s and Disney also suspended their advertisements. Epic Games, the creator of popular online video game Fortnite, commented that it had paused all pre-roll advertising on the platform. YouTube claimed that it took prompt action by removing the offending accounts and reporting the illegal actions to the authorities.

Furthermore, it said that it has disabled the comments on many of the videos with a possibility of such comments. “There’s more to be done, and we continue to work to improve and catch abuse more quickly,” it said.

It has to be noted that there have been similar incidents in the past. The component of the system responsible for reporting sexualized comments on the children’s videos malfunctioned back in 2017.

Marks & Spencer, Audi, and AT&T® have pulled their ads in the past when their ads appeared next to videos involving white nationalism, terrorist groups, and conspiracy theories. Although there is growing pressure on YouTube and Google to bring an end to the offensive content, the firm continues to grow.